Reckonings
by Scarabbug
Summary: In a world like this, with a dragon touched by ultimate power, a friend who used to be the queen of darkness and a brother who doesn’t know how to laugh anymore, who wouldn’t have a screw or two loose? Oneshot, set Post Eternal Night. Darkfic.


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Written to the tune of "This Broken Soul", the ending theme of **_**The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night.**_** Was in a baleful mood and speculating about the upcoming final game of the trilogy. Standard disclaimers apply, reviews and concrit are appreciated.**

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_"Oh holy land, came ancient spirits,  
Take up my hand and guide me,  
Pull me to shore, rivers are rising,  
Look in this heart and find me."_  
- _"This Broken Soul"_, Spyro: The Eternal Night Ending Music.

_"To achieve our dreams, first we must believe in them."_  
- Raven, CBBC, Season Seven, Episode Three.

Reckonings.

He smiled when he rescued them from the cavern, and looked as if he were torn between bowing and hugging him for all he was worth. Neither of these options seemed entirely appropriate, so in the end, he did neither, and simply lead them through the unstable caverns and back into the grey daylight.

The world before them had changed. The temple stood on the horizon, once, visible from as far away as the Ancient Glades and Munitions Forge. There is nothing much left of it now. Nothing that isn't overrun with goblins and apes and infested with Frogweeds. Now it is an ugly, forbidden place, but that is where Hunter first takes them, nonetheless. This is where he hides them, so the Dark master cannot discover that the purple dragon walks amongst them once again, alive and with allies in this new, dark world.

And then of course, there's Hunter himself. Hunter who works for the Dark Master and yet has never laid eyes upon him.

This is what surprises Spyro the most. Of all the things he suspected Hunter of Avalar might turn out to be, a double agent had never been amongst his theories. It is by working for the enemy that Hunter gets close, gets to hear of things that other people miss.

'They say the Dark Master looks through your eyes and wears a face like yours,' he said once when Spyro asked, and seemed to draw no concern from it. Spyro has not told him yet about the Dark Master's true origins. Perhaps he won't have to.

It doesn't take Spyro long to learn precisely how Hunter of Avalar has managed to survive for so long in a world dominated by the Dark Master's essence –it involves an awful lot of killing, a lot of fighting and a lot of pretending to be something he isn't. Spyro supposed he's used to that. The killing that is; not the pretending. Spyro has never made any pretence about exactly what and who he is. He is a dragon, and he is a dragonfly, and he is purple and, as such, is bound to an ancient legend which says that he must leave his stamp on this age, however unlikely that possibility may seem.

These days, Hunter seems to be the only one who believes in it.

* * *

Being in the temple now makes Cynder angry. She kicks at the walls, breaths fire at the emblems which used to stand so proudly against the walls, scratches away the marks left by apes and Toadweeds with her claws. She hates what they have done to it, even more deeply than she hates herself. There is no hope in a world like this. There is no hope when the night is filled with the laughter of apes and the arguments of Snail Riders.

They went to search for the Manweersmalls in the first week and found nothing but bones and empty, smoke filled tunnels. The Tall Plains are empty and bare of all life, with not an Atlawa to be seen. They find Kane, but he buried in the shadow of a quiet glade where Spyro imagines many more lives were lost. Hunter says that they fought the Dark Master and paid the ultimate price for it.

Spyro makes his first promise for them.

The second promise he makes for their parents, after they return to what was once the swampland and now more resembles a wasteland. The silver river has long since dried up, and the weather in the land of the willow trees is colder than it used to be.

Sparx... changes on that day, too. He stops making the jokes he used to. He stops remembering to make light of every misfortune that befalls them. Now the jokes and optimism come only from Hunter. That isn't saying much, but it's better than nothing. Hunter believes, because it's all that he has left. His people, much like Spyro's and Cynder's, are dead and long gone, and all that remains are their memories.

They begin planning the Dark Master's defeat while they wait for Spyro's powers to return.

* * *

There are times when Spyro feels the darkness creeping up inside his veins, and remembers what the Well did to him.

He feels it the most when he thinks of his Parents and Ignitus. When he imagines what must have happened after the Well of Souls let loose its fury. He feels it when he remembers the way the Atlawa had bowed to him, believing that they owed him their lives, and then died for him after he and Cynder remained trapped in stone within the depths of the Mountain of Malefore.

Hunter is mostly unaware of it, Cynder knows, but keeps her mouth shut. Only Sparx ever mentions the incident involving the Well beneath the Mountain and the bright, painful lights bursting out of Spyro's eyes. When he speaks of it, he sounds hushed and concerned, and that helps, because it reminds Spyro that there is more at stake here than his pride and the darkness in his soul. He has no time to worry about his own sanity.

He says that Spyro was always so strong. And Sparx was strong when he was with him. But things change, and now it's less about being strong and more about surviving until he's powerful enough to even think of taking on the Master. Sparx isn't looking forwards to then.

Spyro misses Ignitus. Ignitus would have known what to say, Ignitus would have known what to do. But Ignitus isn't here any longer, and Sparx, in spite of everything, is something of a poor substitute.

* * *

For the first few weeks, Spyro's powers are useless. There is nothing left of his fire breath but ashes, ice comes as nothing but a trickle of cold water and electricity barely tickles his skin. His Earth and Time powers have vanished completely, and every attempt to utilise these abilities does nothing but slow him down while leaving his opponents unscathed. They try to avoid the battles for weeks.

Hunter does their fighting for them, and most of that fighting he does is with words. He's not too smart, but smart enough to stay alive, Spyro soon realises. Smart enough not to look as smart as he is.

Spyro gets to know Hunter quickly. He has to, because he needs to know exactly how much he can be trusted. He learns that Hunter has something about letters – namely he keeps them, even when it would probably be safer to burn them all, and that he could hit a target with an arrow, with his eyes closed at fifty paces. He learns that there is (was) a woman called Elora who Hunter often speaks to even though there is no one else around. When Spyro asks, Hunter says that a woman called Elora taught him something very important once. He made a bargain with her and has never broken the promise he made. Spyro doesn't ask what that promise was. He gets the feeling that this is uneasy ground that he is better off not treading.

Spyro has no idea what kind of authority Hunter is supposed to have under the Dark Master's allegiance, but he knows that people seem to _listen_ to him when he gives an order, he shares jokes with the apes, and those slaves who do not know him –those who have never seen Hunter laugh or smile or look at them with pride and hope, seem to shudder slightly whenever he passes. Sparx shudders too, the same way he used to whenever Cynder's name was mentioned, but then, Sparx doesn't trust anyone these days.

Spyro knows that Hunter believes in him.

One day, Spyro asks another question: he asks Hunter what he would have, if it could be anything in the world. If he could make one choice that would change his world entirely, what kind of decision would he make?

Hunter says that he would save Spyro's life.

He also adds that he _almost_ said he'd wish to have Elora back, but that she'd probably whack him about the head for "disrupting the laws of life and death" or something.

Spyro doesn't know what to think about that. But he might just go with Sparx's analysis: Hunter has a screw or two loose.

Then again, in a world like this, with a dragon touched by ultimate power and ultimate evil, a friend who used to be the queen of darkness and a brother who doesn't know how to laugh anymore, who _wouldn't_ have a screw or two loose?

* * *

Their existence does not remain secret for long. Rumours of Spyro's continued survival creeps in amongst the ranks of darkness.

'"The hope of slaves and the terror of the dark master still lives, unseen amongst the darkness, aided by traitors and watched over by fools." That's what the Ape Commander says about you,' Hunter tells him, and he speaks with pride when he says it. Spyro knows Hunter is no fool. He has hidden amongst the Dark Masters forces for years, unnoticed.

Whenever Spyro questions him, about why he's here, why he is so intent upon helping them when the Dark Master's forces will have his head if they realise his treachery, Hunter simply says "you're the purple dragon," as if that explains everything. Occasionally, he will add "I read the stories when I was a child. I know exactly who you are, Spyro", but Spyro still isn't entirely certain just what Hunter means by that. He doesn't know what kind of stories were told about him. Hunter just smiles and says they were 'Big ones, scary ones. My mom told me to look out for you for the opposite reasons to why I do.'

Spyro figures it might be better not to ask. He doesn't need the fairytales of old mothers corrupting him, the way the darkness of the Well of Souls has.

* * *

They flee from the temple one night, several months after their arrival back in the world of the living. They don't know who betrayed them, and probably never will, but Hunter seemed angry and bitter about it, and Spyro remembers the feeling he had when Ignitus first told him of Cynder's origins.

The apes close in quickly on the temple, screaming and crying for blood. They have to leave quickly and leave behind all memories and keepsakes they might have possessed. The only thing they take are the letters that Hunter hid in the depths of the temple.

They scatter in the place that used to be the swamps when the apes chase them for three days and nights.

When the Apes corner them in the valleys leading to the Ancient Glade, Hunter draws his bow and tells them to run.

Spyro refuses, of course. Spyro fights, because that is what he does. It's all that he knows how to do. But he has few powers remaining – his fire breath barely trickles and his Dragon Time seems only to speed things up as opposed to slow them down. There is not much he can do about it.

In the end, he ran, because Cynder makes him, and Hunter turns a bow on him and Sparx yells a lot and...

...He didn't have any other choice.

* * *

They return to the place three days later, and find nothing but the scrapped remains of what used to be letters, and maybe even the remains of a willow bow. This is how he knows that Hunter is dead. Another to add to the death count. Another ally lost to the darkness. Now there is only Sparx and Cynder, the three of them alone in a world that will do all it can to destroy them.

Spyro is tired of people dying. And they say that he who fights and runs away will live to fight again in the future. So he summons a tiny spark of fire and burns away the remains of the letters, and uses ice and flame to wash away their footprints, hiding their return to this spot from the world.

Then two dragons and a dragonfly vanish into the undergrowth, taking with them the story of hope that the purple one amongst them shall save the world. Because that was what Hunter believed, and that is what Spyro believes again now, too. Inner darkness to contend with or no.

Whether or not he actually succeeds, is a story that has not yet been told.

* * *


End file.
